Lean on Pete (9 page)

“I wonder why,” Harry said.

Del laughed and turned on the radio. He set it to a country station and started humming along. Harry took the last beer from the sack and we drove for nearly an hour until we were on the outskirts of Walla Walla. Del took an exit and drove us to a ranch and parked. He got out of the truck and talked to a man there, then they both walked to the back of the trailer and unloaded the horses. After that Del backed the trailer off to the side of the barn and we unhooked it and left.

We got a room in Walla Walla at the A & H Motel. Harry walked down the street and came back with a twelve pack of beer and pint of whiskey. He set it on the table between the two beds, then took off his boots and his racing pants and put on his regular clothes. He sat on the bed closest to the door and started drinking. Del was lying on the other bed watching TV. I stood there for a while, then saw there was a pretty decent place for me to lie down in the corner by the window. I put my sleeping bag out and sat down on it.

Del took a long drink off the whiskey and opened a beer.

“That was a close one,” he said.

“It seemed alright until they started looking for it.”

“I thought it was pretty chickenshit that they’d accuse me.”

“I haven’t seen a horse take off like that in a long time,” Harry said. “They had to know.”

Del nodded, then sat up and took a can of chew from the bedside stand and took a dip from it.

“Just watching you do that makes me want to puke.”

“If you weren’t such a drunk we wouldn’t have to get a room,” Del said.

“You’re just complaining ’cause you’re so goddamn cheap the thought of spending money on a room makes you break out in a rash.”

Del spit into a wastebasket between the beds.

“I can’t help it if I can’t see good at night. At least I still have a license. And I don’t mind getting a room. I paid for it. I didn’t hear you speak up when that fat old Indian wanted fifty bucks.”

“I risked my life for you today.”

“I paid you for it,” Del said and sat back. “And look, if you’d lay off the beer you wouldn’t have to be here in the first place. If you weren’t so fucked up you’d get on at a track or two.”

“How many times are you gonna bring that up?”

“As many as it takes.”

“You’re the guy that needs to lose fifty pounds.”

“I ain’t a jockey, am I? The last time I checked, you were.”

They went back and forth and back and forth like that, then all of a sudden Harry threw a can of beer against the wall, put on his boots, and left.

I just sat there. I didn’t say anything and Del didn’t say anything either. He just watched TV and channel jumped for the next hour before he settled on news.

I got up and put my coat on.

“Del, I’m gonna go and get something to eat.”

His eyes were half shut. He sat up and rubbed his face.

“I gave him rides when he was at
124
pounds. I gave him rides when everyone else gave up on him.”

I nodded.

“I guess you want your pay?”

I nodded.

“How much did I tell you?” he said and sat up and took his wallet out.

“You never did,” I said.

“Here’s sixty,” he said and handed me the bills. “Just leave the door unlocked.”

I put the money in my pants pocket and left. I went to a grocery store and got a roll of quarters and found a payphone and called the hospital and asked for my dad. They put me on hold for a long time and then they told me he was asleep so I hung up. After that I called Scottish Sam’s Auto Parts in Rock Springs. A girl answered but she said she’d never heard of Margy Thompson and that she’d worked there for three years. I asked her if anyone else would know, but she said the only one who’d worked there longer than her was the owner and he’d just gotten out of the hospital and wasn’t coming back to work for a while.

I walked down a main street and saw an Elmer’s Restaurant and went in and sat at a table and my waitress was old and nice and filled my soda three times. She and I started talking and she said I looked like her brother when he was a kid. She said it made her head hurt how close we looked to each other. I ordered the ham and scalloped potato dinner with soup, and afterwards she gave me a free piece of pie.

I called the hospital again after dinner but they said he was still sleeping. I looked at stores windows, then went to a park and watched a group of kids skateboarding. They each took turns going off this jump, and then they all left together and were talking and laughing. As I watched them I knew I’d probably never be like that. I laid back on the grass and looked up at the sky for a while, then finally went back to the room.

When I opened the door I could see Del sitting on the bed laughing and drinking a beer. There was an overweight woman in there and she was wearing a blouse and a denim skirt and was holding the skirt up with her hand. She wasn’t wearing any underwear and you could see her naked down there. She had dyed blonde hair that was growing black on the top and she wore bright red lipstick. She had two Band-Aids on her leg and was wearing sandals. One of the straps was held together with black tape.

I went inside and shut the door behind me.

Del put his face up to her ass and let out a long breath.

“Even her ass smells good.”

Harry was sitting on the other bed. He wasn’t laughing or smiling. He just had this blank sort of expression on his face, and had his hands around one of the woman’s breasts. Her shirt was open and they were just hanging out. The TV was on and the woman held a beer in her hand and was humming along to a commercial.

I didn’t want to be there but I wasn’t sure where else I’d go. Harry and Del hardly noticed I came in and I don’t think the woman saw at all. I sat down in a chair near the bathroom sink and tried to watch TV.

“You wouldn’t think Walla Walla would have this sorta ass,” Del said. He set down his can of beer and pulled her ass apart. He took his finger and put it in there.

“What in the Christ are you doing back there?” the woman said.

“I’m exploring,” Del said and laughed.

“It’s gonna cost you.”

“I got the money,” Del said, then he spit and you could see that he put most of it in the wastebasket but that some went on the side of the lady’s ass. Harry was on the other side of the woman and he started kissing her breasts.

I got up and grabbed my sleeping bag, took my backpack, and left the room. I stood there in the parking lot for a long time, then I got into the bed of the truck. I moved things around so I had enough room to lay my sleeping bag down. I took off my shoes but left the rest of my clothes on and got in.

The night was clear and I could see stars. The motel was quiet. Once in a while you could hear laughing coming from the room, but it was faint and hardly noticeable. I just lay there and I was warm, I wasn’t really scared at all. I just thought about my dad and then I thought about my aunt. I thought about the times we’d go to the movies or the time when her car broke down and we left it on the side of the road and walked to a restaurant. I remember her not even worrying about it, her just sitting there smoking cigarettes and talking and laughing and eating.

It was just past dawn when I heard a tractor trailer rig start. It rumbled and smoked and then it calmed and just sat there and idled. When I looked up into the sky there weren’t any clouds and it wasn’t cold. I lay there until the truck left, then I went into my backpack and took out my running clothes and changed into them.

I got up and put on my shoes and grabbed my roll of quarters and jumped out of the truck and started running. I was almost out of the parking lot when I got worried that they’d wake up and leave me so I turned around and went back to the truck. I opened the hood, found the distributor, unhooked it and took out the rotor. I set the rotor under my sleeping bag and started running again.

I had learned that from a kid in Spokane. He tried out for football but he was small and never got to play. I used to spend weekends at his house eating and watching TV. We were both trying to gain weight.

His brother had a
1983
Cadillac. My friend would take out the rotor to make him late for work. He said his brother would wake up late and grumpy and then he’d get in the car and try to start it. He’d sit there and turn the key over and over but the engine would never take. He’d start beating on the steering wheel and start swearing, then he’d get out and take off down the street trying to get a bus.

The kid hated his brother and wanted the car. Once his brother was gone he’d put the rotor back so when his brother tried it after work it would start right up. His brother thought the car was cursed and quit driving it and finally sold it to his little brother for two hundred dollars.

I ran to a payphone and called the hospital, but they said he was sleeping. I hung up and started running again. I ran downtown and through the university campus. I ran up and down a big courtyard and around all these college buildings, then I went back to the motel. The truck was still there. I grabbed my backpack and went into the room. Del was asleep on one bed with no covers over him. He was completely naked. Harry was on the other, conked out with a sheet over his head. The woman was gone. There were beer cans on the carpet and the dresser and the bedside table. The TV was still on. There was an ashtray full of cigarette butts and there were two empty whiskey pints sitting next to the telephone. The bedside clock said
7
a.m.

I went into the bathroom and took a shower and got dressed. They were still both conked out when I went back into the room so I walked downtown and found a restaurant and ate breakfast. When I got back they still hadn’t moved and Del was snoring. I put the rotor back in the distributor, then lay down in the bed of the truck on my sleeping bag and fell asleep. The next thing I heard was the truck starting. I don’t know how much time had passed. I looked inside the cab, they both were there, and I lay back down as Del got us out on the road.

We stopped at the ranch where we’d left the horses. Harry got out of the truck and headed over to them. I jumped down and followed behind him. He took our two halters that were resting on the fence and opened the gate.

Harry got Broken Blue and told me to get Pete and so I walked down a bit further and found him. He moved his head right next to me when he saw who I was. I pet his face and neck, then put the halter on him and headed back up. When we got there Del was leaning back in his seat and his eyes were closed. Harry loaded up Broken Blue. He took Pete and got ready to load him, but Pete was walking slow with short steps and Harry noticed. He leaned down and put his hands around Pete’s front legs and moved them slowly up and down.

“You should probably go get Del.”

I went to the truck and knocked on the driver’s side window and Del slowly sat up.

“What?” he said and rolled down the window.

“Harry said to come back.”

Del shook his head and opened the door. He got out and stood there for a moment. He looked sick. He coughed and coughed, then he walked back to the trailer.

“What is it?”

“Is he the guy you think is navicular?”

“It ain’t that bad yet.”

“He looked like he was walking on nails when the kid was coming up the road with him.”

Del just stood there staring at the horse, then he bent down and ran his hands all down Pete’s leg. “I don’t know,” he said, and you could see his mood getting worse as the seconds passed.

Then he stood up again. “If I had a gun I’d shoot him right here.”

“If I had a gun I’d shoot myself,” Harry said, and he looked like he might puke.

Del took off his glasses and rubbed his face and put his glasses back on.

“Load him and let’s get something to eat.”

“I thought you said you weren’t hungry.”

“Well, I’m hungry now,” Del said and walked back to the truck.

Chapter 11

No one said anything on the ride back. Del didn’t even play the radio. He just chewed and every time he put in a new dip Harry would take out a can of beer from the sack by his feet and open it. It was late in the afternoon when we finally got back to Portland. We left Harry at a mini-mart near his trailer. He went inside the store and came out with a twelve pack of beer and a can of Coke for Del, then he said goodbye and walked across the street. Del just sat there lifeless, his face pale and his eyes raw and bloodshot.

He opened the Coke, then started the truck and drove us to the track and we unloaded the horses.

“Look,” he said, “things are gonna be changing soon. The race meet here starts up next week and I’ll have horses running every week. We’re gonna have a lot of work to do. We can’t fuck around.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Clean the stalls before three. The night feed’s at four, alright?”

“Alright,” I said.

Then he got back in his truck, moved the trailer to the lot, unhooked it, and left.

After I cleaned the stalls I stood there with Pete. I looked at his legs but I couldn’t see anything. He wasn’t swollen and he wasn’t lame. He didn’t seem upset either. I didn’t know Del well enough to know if he’d really shoot Pete, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

When I was done I walked to the hospital, but when I got to my dad’s room he wasn’t there. Only one bed was occupied and there was an old man in it. Next to him in a chair sat an old lady. I asked her if she knew where my dad was but she said she didn’t know. I looked in all the rooms on the floor but he wasn’t in any of them.

I found a nurse behind a desk and I asked her. She wore glasses and had long brown hair. She wore rings on her fingers. I remember all that about her, I can still see her. She stood there and told me he’d died. She’d met him. She was one of his nurses and said that when they sewed up his bowel there was a leak. When they X-rayed it they didn’t see it, but it was there, and he became septic and his organs shut down. She went on about it, but I didn’t really understand. She said he was sleeping when his heart stopped.

Tears fell down my face and I felt like I was going to hyperventilate, but I didn’t make a sound. I just stood there. My eyes stared at the nurse. She tried to hug me but I don’t like to be hugged. I backed away. Tears began falling down her face and I turned around and left. She called out to me but I didn’t stop. I got out of the building and walked around but I didn’t know where I was going. Everything blurred. My thoughts swirled and then I started crying. I was in deep trouble, I knew that. My dad was lying somewhere dead, and I was all alone.